American Journal of Psychiatry 163:521-528, March 2006
doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.163.3.521
&#169; 2006 American Psychiatric Association
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Articles by Eaton, W. W.
Articles by Mortensen, P. B.

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Articles by Eaton, W. W.
Articles by Mortensen, P. B.

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Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders

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Related Article

Association of Schizophrenia and Autoimmune Diseases: Linkage of Danish National Registers
William W. Eaton, Ph.D., Majella Byrne, Ph.D., Henrik Ewald, Dr.Med.Sc., Ole Mors, Ph.D., Chuan-Yu Chen, Ph.D., Esben Agerbo, M.S. and Preben Bo Mortensen, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc.
OBJECTIVE: Individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives tend to have either higher or lower than expected prevalences of autoimmune disorders, especially rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, autoimmune thyroid diseases, and type 1 diabetes. The purpose of the study was to estimate the association of schizophrenia with these disorders as well as a range of other autoimmune diseases in a single large epidemiologic study. METHOD: The Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a register with socioeconomic information were linked to form a data file that included all 7,704 persons in Denmark diagnosed with schizophrenia from 1981 to 1998 and their parents along with a sample of matched comparison subjects and their parents. The data linkage required that the autoimmune disease occur before the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: A history of any autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increase in risk for schizophrenia. Nine autoimmune disorders had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects (crude incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.9 to 12.5), and 12 autoimmune diseases had higher prevalence rates among parents of schizophrenia patients than among parents of comparison subjects (adjusted incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.3 to 3.8). Thyrotoxicosis, celiac disease, acquired hemolytic anemia, interstitial cystitis, and Sj&#246;gren’s syndrome had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects and also among family members of schizophrenia patients than among family members of comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia is associated with a larger range of autoimmune diseases than heretofore suspected. Future research on comorbidity has the potential to advance understanding of pathogenesis of both psychiatric and autoimmune disorders.

My theory on autoimmune diseases (I AM NOT A DOCTOR OR MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL--I AM JUST A SOCIAL WORKER WHO HAS SEEN PEOPLE WITH AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES AND HAS SOME IDEAS ABOUT IT)

is that they must have a psychosomatic origin. With autoimmune diseases, your immune system and other bodily defense systems are in overdrive and instead of attacking bad things in your body, they attack they body itself.

So, basically, your body is attacking itself. I think people with low self esteem or repressed anger or hatred towards themselves develop theses diseases because they don't like themselves, thus their own body attacks them.

This could also happen to people who seem happy, but push themselves too hard and can't accept themselves unless they are loved and perfect at what they do, which could be why seemingly happy people like Michael J Fox and Montel Williams got these types of diseases.

Basically, if you don't like your body or show your body respect by getting rest your body could start to attack itself.

Back to schizophrenia or even other mental illnesses, the stress and stigma of having this ilness could cause one to develop an autoimune disease.

Hi I'm new to this board and I'm wondering if any family's with schizophrenia history also have autoimmune disease.
My sister is schizofrenic and also has some autoimmune diseases . Other members of my family including myself have differant autoimmune diseases.

I'm leaving an interesting study to new research into this link and would like to hear from others that have these same issiues.

OBJECTIVE: Individuals with schizophrenia and their relatives tend to have either higher or lower than expected prevalences of autoimmune disorders, especially rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, autoimmune thyroid diseases, and type 1 diabetes. The purpose of the study was to estimate the association of schizophrenia with these disorders as well as a range of other autoimmune diseases in a single large epidemiologic study. METHOD: The Danish Psychiatric Register, the National Patient Register, and a register with socioeconomic information were linked to form a data file that included all 7,704 persons in Denmark diagnosed with schizophrenia from 1981 to 1998 and their parents along with a sample of matched comparison subjects and their parents. The data linkage required that the autoimmune disease occur before the diagnosis of schizophrenia. RESULTS: A history of any autoimmune disease was associated with a 45% increase in risk for schizophrenia. Nine autoimmune disorders had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects (crude incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.9 to 12.5), and 12 autoimmune diseases had higher prevalence rates among parents of schizophrenia patients than among parents of comparison subjects (adjusted incidence rate ratios ranging from 1.3 to 3.8). Thyrotoxicosis, celiac disease, acquired hemolytic anemia, interstitial cystitis, and Sjögren’s syndrome had higher prevalence rates among patients with schizophrenia than among comparison subjects and also among family members of schizophrenia patients than among family members of comparison subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Schizophrenia is associated with a larger range of autoimmune diseases than heretofore suspected. Future research on comorbidity has the potential to advance understanding of pathogenesis of both psychiatric and autoimmune disorders.

assy

I just have a comment regarding studies such as this. I am a little cynical when it comes to the world of medicine so please do not take my comment personally Kassy. But why the heck do these doctors have to waste their time and the ppls money on these studies? I do not get where they are actually going to help any people with this 'proven' knowledge. I mean it's only common sense that the 2 would be linked if you think about it. Will the science communities ever learn or recognize that in order to treat part of a being you have to consider it as a whole? What I mean by this is that you need to treat the body and mind, since they are really one whole. You can't fix one without fixing the other, as one can't be broke without the other also being broke. I just wish this would be more widely accepted and implemented. Instead of scientists trudging further on down a path that is not getting our societies anywhere healthier. The way I see it is they're just keeping their pockets lined.

What is 'advancing the understanding of the pathogenesis of psychiatric and autoimmune disorders' going to lead to?